Half-million-plus sign up for insurance in four days

Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell confers with Michael Hill of Harris Health System this fall. She has said this could be a tough year for health care enrollment as it may be harder to reach those still uninsured.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell confers with...

More than a half-million applications to buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act were submitted nationwide to healthcare.gov during the first four days of enrollment for next year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Monday.

Department spokesman Benjamin Wakana added in an email that a quarter of million applications arrived in the first 48 hours.

U.S. enrollment for 2016 opened Nov. 1 with many eyes watching to see if the number of uninsured in the country will continue to drop.

Nationally, more than 16 million people have gained health insurance coverage since the Affordable Care Act went into effect, either through buying plans through the federal marketplace or state exchanges, expanded Medicaid coverage in some states or because young adults can stay on their parents' plans until age 26, according to federal statistics.

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In the first six months of 2015, 28.5 million people of all ages remained uninsured, dropping the rate to 9 percent, a report last week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Health Statistics showed. That is 7.5 million fewer than in 2014 and 16.3 million in 2013.

Texas continues to lead the nation in the number and rate of uninsured, but those numbers have also dropped significantly since the ACA took effect. By some estimates, 20 percent of Texans, or nearly 5 million people, remain without health insurance.

It is not yet known how many Texans signed up in the first week of enrollment.

Many involved in the effort to enroll the uninsured admit that as time goes on, it may become harder to reach the uninsured as many without coverage have now signed up.

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said in a brief stop in Houston last month that President Barrack Obama's administration would be focusing on the 10.5 million people nationwide who were eligible for coverage through public insurance exchanges, or marketplaces.

"We hope to reach one in four," she said at an event in advance of the start of the enrollment period. Texas was one of four places the administration had targeted to boost signups.

Wakana on Monday had a message to those in the state undecided about enrollment: "We want to remind Texans that financial assistance is available. More than 7 in 10 current Marketplace enrollees could find a plan for $75 or less a month in premiums after tax credits."

Enrollment will continue through Jan. 31, although officials have urged that people should consider enrolling by mid-December to ensure uninterrupted coverage.